by A Combustible Lemon » Wed Nov 28, 2018 1:18 am
This wasn't unexpected from back when he announced he had ALS, it's not very survivable. But the man was an important part of so many people's childhoods. Spongebob is incredibly influencial and modern random children's comedy is almost always directly influenced by and rips off its work.
The first few seasons will always get me to laugh and I could rattle off the episodes' scripts while watching them, I watched them so many times. Stuff like the surreal time travel episode, the creepy and fascinating and ultimately hilarious episode set in Rock Bottom, The Sponge Who Could Fly, The One where Spongebob fucks up the pickles, so many episodes were so good and still are.
The show managed to be meta without being obnoxious, while still maintaining a hilarious sincerity about everything. It never felt overly clever or proud of itself for the meta-ness of the jokes. It managed to keep an emotional range that's really surprising for what is, in the end a comedy dependent on randomness. Spongebob's work ethic problems and his self esteem issues could reach surprisingly over the top (or under the bottom) depths emotionally, while in the end he always bounded back to his cheery self.
RIP Stephen Hillenburg.
(You know you're all chorusing the words)